Sun,Nov 23rd, 2008 7:28 AM
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Search engines can be great tools or frustrating experiences. Not all search engines live by the same rules, not all of them have the same information listed, and not all of them stay up to date. Some search engines are geared toward academics, others toward a young, hip audience, and still others specialize in only one subject area such as law or medicine. With a little search savvy, however, you can use them to find destinations on the information superhighway with ease. Internet America has included a Goolge Search directly off my.airmail.net. Google is currently the largest, most popular engine on the web. It is a search engine that is used by entering a key word or phrase. All search engines function in a similar manner, so, once you are familiar with the Google search engine, you will feel at home with any other engine you try. Subject Based Searches This type of search (dmoz.org) is a great jumping off point for those new to the Internet. It's also a fun place to play around when you don't have any particular subject in mind and just want to broaden your horizons and take a joy ride around the Internet. Clicking on a subject will open up another menu of subjects that become more specific to choose from. All you do is point and click until you find what you want. Each link you select will bring up another set of links. You can see the path you took to get to each list because the previous list is still visible. There will be a small arrow next to the link you previously selected. When you've reached the end of the subject lists you will be on a page listing links to specific websites. Once you reach a links page, there will be a title and a brief description of the link. Just click on the title and the link will take you to the page described. This is where the "Back" button feature of the your browser really comes in handy. To get back to the page of links, just click on the back button until you arrive the page you need. Text Based Searches A hint about searching is to be as specific as possible and be willing to try different versions of your chosen word or phrase. If you are looking for a good French toast recipe entering just "toast" will get you everything from toasters to toasts for parties. If you enter "French toast", you will get everything from restaurants that have French toast on the menu to recipes. When you enter "French toast recipes" you get a page (or pages) of links related to just recipes for French toast (well, almost). What you get is a list of pages that mention "French toast recipes" in their page somewhere; there may not actually be a recipe on the page. What happens if you don't find the perfect French toast recipe that way? Well, try starting out with "recipes" maybe or "breakfast recipes." Each word or set of words you enter in will get you a different set of results. The most important thing to remember is this is supposed to be a tool to help you, not a method of torture. Think of it as a puzzle or a mystery you have to solve and you will come closer to getting the results you desire. More Choices Some direct links to most of the major search engines are located here. Or type "search engine" in the text search space on Internet America's home page and you will find more search engines than you can imagine. You'll be surprised at the searches you will find and how many of them may be of interest to you. The bookmark/favorites feature in your browser is perfect for bookmarking search engines you may want to return to again and again or the pages that you find that are valuable. Quite often you will run across some gem of a page that has nothing to do with your search but is something of interest. Think of searching as your road map to the Internet and you will get where you want to go faster and have a more interesting time getting there. Choose your section:Main | Chatting | Downloading | Email | Newsgroups | Searching | Your Web Page | World Wide Web Please email our technical support team if you have any questions. By Telephone: 1-800-232-4335 Toll-free 
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